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SLMM has become a cover, feels its head

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Urges Norway to withdraw from peace process

COLOMBO: Frustrated over the growing "irrelevance" of the mission, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Ulf Henricsson has recommended to Norway (facilitator of the peace process) to consider withdrawal from it.

A spokesman of the SLMM told The Hindu that Maj. Gen. (Retd) Henricsson is of the view that the SLMM has become some kind of "political cover" for Colombo and the LTTE to keep alive the ceasefire agreement (CFA) without honouring it.

The move follows his charges in the media that the Government is obstructing an impartial probe into the execution of 17 workers of a French NGO in Muttur last week.

The workers, engaged in relief work for the December 2004 tsunami hit in the area, were killed in execution style by unidentified persons in the town which was the theatre of war for over four days.

Asked about the comments made by the SLMM chief, the Secretary General of Sri Lanka Government's Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), Palitha T.B. Kohona told reporters here on Sunday that he was surprised at the charges.

The Government on Sunday said Ketheshwaran Loganathan, Deputy Secretary General of the SCOPP was gunned down at his home on Saturday, late in the evening by members of the pistol group of the LTTE.

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